Feeding wild animals, such as wild birds, squirrels and other small wildlife is a widely practiced hobby. Many people enjoy observing wild birds, and seek to attract them by providing feeding stations where the birds can obtain food. These feeding stations are especially helpful for birds and other wild life during the winter months and in colder climates where the animals energy needs are increased, and naturally occurring foods, such as plants, seeds and the like are often unavailable or in short supply. In this regard, food supplies can become especially limited when snow that covers many of the animals' food sources.
A large variety of bird and animal feeders exist currently. For example, Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc., of Carmel, Ind. offers for sale and displays many bird feeders at its website at www.wbu.com. A wide variety of other feeders are available through manufacturers such as Perky Feeders, and can be found at www.birdfeeders.com.
A typical bird feeder includes a frame that includes a hopper portion, a perch portion, and amounting portion. The perch portion often comprises a tray or bar on which a bird can perch while eating the bird food. The hopper usually includes a container for containing a loose packaged bird food. Most bird foods comprise things such as loose seeds, nuts, kernels, peanuts, raisins, fruit pieces, nut pieces and other items that birds find tasty nutritious and nourishing diet. Other loose foods for other wild animals, such as squirrels may include other seeds such as corn, or other food items.
The holder or mounting portion is a part of the feeder that the user employs to mount the feeder onto a suitable holder. One example of a suitable holder is the Advanced Pole System® brand bird feeder pole, that is sold by Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc., and is shown in Carpenter and Holscher et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,386,142 (which is incorporated herein by reference). These holder portions of the feeder may comprise a ring or sling disposed at the top of the animal feeder that is sized and configured to be received by a rod, such as a shepherd's hook. Through placing a rod, rope, wire or cable through the hole, the bird feeder can be mounted to various hook members that can be mounted on the ground or onto a building, or alternatively, can be used to receive rope to enable the bird feeder to be hung from the branch of a tree.
As an alternative, some feeders are base mounted. In order to be mounted to a base, the bird feeder might include for example, a platform to which a metal base plate can be attached. The base plate may be formed as a part of a bird pole, or can be designed to include a ring or sleeve for receiving a pole or rod, such as the pole associated with the Advanced Pole System® type bird pole shown in the Carpenter and Holscher patent discussed above.
Most bird seed type bird and squirrel feeds are packaged loosely for placement in a container, such as a hopper to hold it until such time as the birds or other animals consume it from the feeding port of the container. However, not all seed is provided in a loose form. For example, it has been found by that birding enthusiasts that many birds enjoy having or eating a bird food that is presented in a block form such as suet.
Suet comprises a cake of hard fat mixed with seeds, grains, nuts and fruit that serves well as a food for birds. Typically, the fat is derived from the areas around the kidneys of cattle and sheep. Suet balls formed from this fatty material can be shaped into flat cakes, balls, plugs or novelty shapes such as wreaths, muffins or bells to be decorative, as well as nutritious for birds. Suet serves particularly well for birds in the winter, because the fat used to create the suet cakes is a highly concentrated form of energy that is important to help the birds maintain body heat.
Because of its cake-like nature, suet is not placed in a hopper type feeder. Rather, suet can be placed on a stand-type feeder. Wild Birds Unlimited, Inc. and other companies sell cage-like devices into which a suet cake can be placed. The cage like device can be hung on a feeder pole. The wire of the cage can serve as a perch hold for birds, and the spaces between the wires can provide areas wherein the birds insert their beaks to access the suet that is contained within the cage.
Another type of recently introduced animal feed comprises bird food that is provided in the form of a food block. These food blocks often include a plurality of seeds and other type foods that are held together with a binder to form a block. Often, the block is a ring like block that takes the shape of a cylindrical or rectangularly cuboid ring. Regardless of the shape, many such blocks include axially extending passageways.
Food blocks having such passageways are particularly well adapted for use with hopperless bird feeders. Hopperless bird feeders do not include hoppers or cages for containing and holding seed, but rather include a shelf of some sort upon which the food block can rest. To maintain the food block on the shelf, an axially extending rod is provided that is sized, positioned and configured for extending axially through the axially extending passageway of the food block. As such, the axially extending rod captures food block and maintains the food block upon the shelf of the feeder.
Over time, the birds eat at the exterior surfaces of the food block, eating through the food block to the point wherein all of the seed (and other food items) are fully consumed by the birds.
In some cases, the food block may be formed to include a liner for the passageway (that is functionally similar to the cardboard roll of a toilet paper roll), to help to prevent the centrally disposed rod from chipping away at the layers of food that define the walls of the cylindrical passageway.
Although such food blocks are very convenient to use, they do have certain drawbacks. In particular, the feeders that are used with such food blocks have designs that often make changing or replacing food blocks more complicated than necessary in order to change food blocks. In particular, since the axially extending rod that secures the food block extends upwardly from the shelf (or downwardly from the roof), a sufficient distance to maintain the food block on the shelf, it is often difficult to replace a new food block onto a shelf when the prior food block is fully consumed. Difficulty exists because in order to place the new food block on the shelf, one must remove the axially extending rod, so that the food block can be moved laterally on the shelf into a position wherein the axially extending rod is aligned with the axially extending passageway so that the rod can be extended through the axially extending passageway.
In conventional known “food block” bird feeders, moving the rod to a position wherein the new food block can be placed on the shelf requires the user to either dis-assemble the roof of the bird feeder from the remainder of the bird feeder unit; or alternately, to remove the base of the bird feeder from the remainder of the unit, so that the open end of the passageway within the bird food block can be aligned with, and positioned co-linearly with the rod at its exposed end, and then moved axially over the rod. After this occurs, the base or roof is then reconnected to the remainder of the bird feeder.
Although such a device performs its function well, room for improvement exists. En particular, room for improvement exists in providing a bird feeder that permits a more quick and easy replacement of a bird food block on a bird feeder of the general type described above.
One object of the present invention is to provide such a device.